WALES prop Adam Jones hailed George North as a ‘freak’ after he helped Warren Gatland’s men get their Six Nations campaign off to a flier in Ireland on Sunday.

North crossed for a vital try in the final five minutes of Wales’ 23-21 win at the Aviva Stadium and he also played a huge part in Jonathan Davies’ second try, crashing over the top of Fergus McFadden in the build up before off-loading to his Scarlets team-mate.

Much us expected of North, who at just 19 was winning his 17th cap in Dublin, but Jones is wary of heaping too much pressure on the young Scarlets winger, especially having seen Wales’ record try scorer Shane Williams retire from international rugby less than three months ago.

In scoring his late try North, who hails from Anglesey, took a number of Irish defenders over the line with him, while earlier in the contest he threatened to do the same only to be hauled down just short of the line.

Many outside the Wales camp are already making comparisons with New Zealand’s legendary winger Jonah Lomu.

But asked whether the former Llangefni, Pwllheli and Rhyl youth player’s try was similar to Lomu’s against England in the 1995 World Cup, Jones said: “It was brilliant but I wouldn’t go that far because I don’t want to heap too much pressure on the boy. He carried a few over with him.

“I think he’s going all right so far, but let’s don’t get too carried away with him.

“He’s a bit of a freak in that he can step like Shane (Williams) but is 10 times bigger. Shane’s obviously a loss, but it looks to me, there’s hell of a future with all these young fellas.”

Wales had dominated the early proceedings at the Aviva Stadium, but despite their possession enjoyed only a slender lead heading into half time and actually went in at the break 10-5 down after Rory Best’s late try.

And they were still down heading into the dying embers of the match, having seen Tommy Bow cross while Wales were down to 14 men as Bradley Davies was serving 10 minutes in the sin bin for a dangerous tip tackle on Donnacha Ryan.

However, North’s late try and a penalty from Leigh Halfpenny, after Stephen Ferris was shown a yellow card in the last minute for a similar offence on Ian Evans, saw Wales claim the victory.

This was Wales’ third win in a row over Ireland, having beaten them in last year’s Six Nations and knocking them out of the World Cup in October in Wellington.

“We started off pretty strong, but we let them in towards the end of the first half with their hooker Rory Best scoring,” added Jones.

“They attacked us during the second half and we pretty much won it in the last five minutes. It was a good Test match, a proper Test.

“We knew they were going to come out firing after the World Cup. There had been a lot said in the newspapers about how they want to beat us for revenge. We knew they were a good side. To be fair, we kind of negated them the first 10 minutes.

“We knew they’d come out firing and ‘Paulie’ (Paul O’Connell) would have them revved up. We managed to slow that down a bit and dominated much of the first half.

“That was good for us because we have been out here before and know, if you let the Irish boys get on the front foot and dominate the first 20 minutes, it can be a pretty long day. We’re pleased with that although we were disappointed with the last quarter-of-an-hour of the first half. It was great to come through at the end, especially being a man down.

“We had a few choice words for him (Bradley Davies)! We’ve done it before with Nugget (Martyn Williams) and Mike Phillips in Dublin in 2008, when we were down to 14 men for 20 minutes. It was difficult. Tommy Bowe scored for them – it had to be him, didn’t it? Bradley’s obviously disappointed but, if we’d lost, it would have been 10 times worse.”

In the immediate aftermath of the victory, coach Warren Gatland admitted this was the type of match Wales would have lost in the past two or three years.

But this Welsh team never know when they are beaten and, after taking Ronan O’Gara’s restart following North’s try, Wales moved the ball through the phases deep into Irish territory where they were rewarded with Halfpenny’s late winner.

And Jones was full of praise for the effort put in by the Welsh side in the final few minutes to snatch victory.

“I was lucky enough to be off towards the end because the way we went all the way up the field after Leigh Halfpenny missed the conversion to win the penalty was something else,” added the Ospreys prop, who had been replaced by Paul James at that point.

“I don’t know, rightly or wrongly, whether ‘Fez’s’ (Stephen Ferris) tackle was illegal or not. It was a good hit. For me, he’s not a dirty player, ‘Fez’ is a good guy – he just smashed ‘Yanto’ (Ian Evans) really!

“It was disappointing for him but the way we went from our 22 showed we were confident. The thing, with these young boys in the backs, there’s no sort of pressure. They just like to play rugby, are happy to play rugby and are confident in their ability. It’s a bit early to say how good they are but they’re massive men, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies, Alex Cuthbert, George North. They’re big boys with big futures; it’s us trying to get the ball to them as much as we can.”

Gatland’s men now entertain Scotland next Sunday as they look to continue their momentum and charge for the title.

Scotland, however, will be stinging after a narrow defeat in their opening match against England on Saturday, a match in which they had the chances to have won.

And Jones is expecting just as tough a contest.

“They (Scotland) will be disappointed the way they lost against England,” he added. “They probably should have won it comfortably with the chances they had.

“They’ve a good pack of forwards, a big front-five and the No8 (David Denton) ... I don’t know who the hell he was ... but he was a very good player, so we’ve got our work cut out next Sunday.

“They’re going to be a tough side. They’re going to come out fighting. Their coach Andy Robinson is going to have them pretty worked up this week.

“I don’t think we played to our potential against Ireland. It was good and we’re looking forward to Scotland. We can play better. We’ll just give the ball to George!”